Standards

7/3/2013

A series of nationwide executive leadership summits have been held to foster discussion about the future of online and blended learning. The events highlighted solutions being implemented to meet a range of district needs, including courses that meet the upcoming Common Core standards.

Those are some of the findings from a new report highlighting the conditions facing most Milwaukee students — a report that is the first product of an effort aimed at drawing together major players in the city's education, business and nonprofit scenes to work across sectors and improve outcomes for all the city's children.

6/14/2013

Here's a multiple-choice question: If the federal government penalizes states where pupils do badly in school, but lets the states themselves set the pass mark, will the states a) make the tests harder; or b) dumb them down?

6/13/2013

The Kansas state school board Tuesday approved new, multistate science standards for public schools that treat both evolution and climate change as key concepts to be taught from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

6/11/2013

In April, some 1.2 million New York students took their first Common Core State Standards tests, which are supposed to assess their knowledge and thinking. The first wave of exams was so overwhelming that some parents refused to let their children take the test.﻿

6/3/2013

In terms of the grades Louisiana gives to schools, high schools had a really good year. Unfortunately, some of that was because of a generous new rating scale from the state, not in terms of real performance in the classroom.

5/28/2013

Fewer than 60 percent of Florida’s third-graders — 57 percent — are reading at or above grade level, according to FCAT results released Friday morning. The figure represents a slight increase from last year’s 56 percent.

5/22/2013

Recognizing that American K12 students have fallen behind foreign students in their grasp of scientific principles, educators have devised a new set of teaching guidelines that will radically change the way science is taught in classrooms across the United States—including recommendations that climate change and evolution be taught as core elements of scientific knowledge.

5/16/2013

An advisory council has been crafting minimum standards in four core subjects that would be required to graduate from Colorado high schools — baselines that could be achieved through a variety of standardized test scores or other means.

5/15/2013

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, which is managing the standards creation and feedback process, offers a wealth of information on its website to help district staff understand the process and get their questions answered.

5/13/2013

Ignoring a problem has never made it go away. But that’s exactly what some are suggesting Gov. Paul LePage and the Maine Department of Education do after our new A-F grade system was announced last week.

5/8/2013

Two decades ago, Texas became ground zero for the accountability movement in public education. Now, after a revolt by teachers and parents who claim that high-stakes testing is ruining classroom instruction, the legislature is poised to undo many of its own reforms. Does anyone have the right answer?